Scans of original diary pages - transcript below each page
El Amarya we landed at midnight amongst a collection of half erected tents and very much sand
Christmas day was good and great fun cooking two whole pigs in an improvised Aldershot oven
28 December we set off for the Western Desert the first sandstorm and how that sand got into everything
Looking for a Bedouin encampment and finding one Bedouin with three fresh eggs in the middle of miles of sand
The camel leg I cooked and how good it was after the endless bully
January 23rd the morning of our captured part of the 21st Panzer Division and I almost got away.
Sirte we received our first rations of Italian bread.
Messurate where we were searched by Italians and stripped of any valuables.
Tarhuna sleeping on just mats on the stone floor the Italian commandant who paraded us for our meal of macaroni and water at 5.30 and kept us for one and a half to two hours before allowing it to be served out How he stood before us and produced a cigarette whilst saying none had arrived for us but would come the 'domani' (tomorrow)
Trig Tarhuna outside Tripoli where the commandant of the fort spoke English and treated us like human beings
Tripoli harbour with its many sunken broken ships
February 13th Friday we sailed battened down in a hold full of tins and scrap metal
February the 14th 11:35 p.m the torpedo struck no panic and we got on deck to find the Italians gone and the life boats wrecked I searched for some ? and found a bottle of Chianti
The swim to the cruiser and the vision of Ivy and Andrew
Trapani soaking wet wooden beds no mattress one blanket. I compiled the list of survivors and found we had lost 146 out of 300
Campo 98 under canvas straw on the ground two blankets and lice
Italian food - Breakfast black coffee
10 a.m 400 grams bread orange 60 grams cheese 1/2 pint of cabbage water 1/2 macaroni or rice minestrone
? for 3 weeks
March 27th we left for Italy vial Salerno and Messina after 7 weeks in "Dysentry Corner"